Unofficial news and tips about Google

December 9, 2011

Google Schemer: Social Goal Management

Schemer is an invite-only Google service for sharing and discovering things to do. "A scheme is any activity that can be done in the world, whether it's ordering a favorite dish at a restaurant or snorkeling in the Caribbean with sharks," explains Google.

Much like 43 Things, Schemer lets you define goals and mark the things you've already accomplished. You can inspire other people, find people who have the same goals and join the conversation. To make it easier to find a scheme, you can add tags and locations. Google also partnered with Bravo, Food Network, Rolling Stone, IGN and Entertainment Weekly, so you can get ideas from experts, not just from your friends.

"Whether it's exploring a new city, checking out a friend's movie recommendation, or just finding new activities for your weekends, Schemer lets you discover new things to do, share schemes with friends, and make the most of your day," mentions Schemer's team. The service is integrated with Google+ and you need to join Google+ to be able to use it. "Schemer uses your profile picture and name from your Google+ account to identify you as a schemer user. This means that when you post a scheme, write a comment, post a reply, or indicate either you want to do or have done a scheme, your profile picture and name will be attached to those activities."

Schemer is actually a Google+ app and it's likely that you'll be able to use it inside Google+ in the future. Google also promises to launch a mobile app for Schemer so you can find schemes related to your location.

Now that Google+ no longer requires invitation, Schemer could make Google+ more popular. There's a great viral video, an interesting design and a site that doesn't look like a regular Google service. A scheme is "a secret or devious plan" (American Heritage Dictionary) and a schemer is a person who is involved in making these secret plans, so Google uses a mustache logo, a mesmerizing animated homepage, the Hitchcock font and catchy messages like "You're looking diabolical!" or "Invite your partners in crime".

Thanks for the twitter feed!I think your invite has expired now, so could you tell me how you'd encrypted it? I found the encrypted link but had no clue how to decrypt it.. Rot13 doesn't work, and I doubt that it's a hash... Nor is it a simple substitution...

I've been waiting for this! I knew Google would be coming out with something like this. I'm fascinated with GTD and know the company uses it heavily internally and it was only a matter of time until they integrate GTD with the social graph, location, and a dash of gamifying it. So sweet! I wanna get it and tinker, do some scheming here in Asheville! I would love to have one of those 20 invites so I can get to teaching people what's on the horizon. I have a vision to help Asheville become a model town for where things are headed. Peace y'all.

Please email me from my profile page if you decide to be so kind as to, I couldn't find the link :-) https://plus.google.com/108248903315051459259/about

Would be great if this will learn from others goals. I.e. if i setup a goals that is "i want to write a book" and set my timeperiode on 2 days - Schemer should come back and tell me "majority of people who wrote books, took 6 months". Would be cool :)

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